For Food Production employers and workers, this guide explains how a safe-system method statement supports height work, and how a Working at Heights Course ties it to your day-to-day Food Production work.
Method Statements in Food Production
A food plant's overnight sanitation and maintenance window, when crews access overhead services above freshly cleaned, slippery floors. When it comes to how a safe-system method statement supports height work, Food Production teams have to control hazards such as roof and plant maintenance, ladder use around processing lines and work near silos and intake points. Wet, hygienic environments add slip risk to height work, so anti-slip access and clear scheduling are essential.
The Food Production action list
- Record a risk assessment for each Food Production task at height
- Choose collective protection before personal protection
- Certify the team with a Working at Heights Course
- Inspect equipment and keep the logs
- Plan rescue before work begins
The Working at Heights Course makes compliance simple
Certifying your people is quicker than most employers expect. Our Working at Heights Course is delivered fully online, takes about 45 minutes, and issues a downloadable certificate the same day. It is CPD certified, RoSPA approved and QQI aligned, and it is written specifically for Food Production teams across Ireland.
The Working at Heights Training covers the avoid-prevent-minimise hierarchy, ladder and stepladder safety, MEWPs and scaffolds, harnesses and anchor points, and how to carry out a proper risk assessment. Every learner finishes with a recognised Working at Heights Certificate that stands up to HSA inspection and supports your insurance position.
Training that goes beyond the tick-box
Documentation is what turns good practice into proven compliance for Method Statements in Food Production. Keep your risk assessment, your method statement, your equipment inspection logs and your training records together, and an HSA visit becomes a short, calm conversation rather than a drawn-out investigation.
Insurers now ask directly whether your team holds current Working at Heights certification before they price a policy or settle a claim involving Method Statements in Food Production. A worker hurt at height with no Working at Heights Certificate turns a defensible incident into an indefensible one, and that follows your premium for years.
Frequently asked questions
What is a method statement for working at height?
A step-by-step safe system of work that turns your risk assessment into clear, controlled instructions for the task.
How does this affect Food Production specifically?
In Food Production, the same rules apply with sector-specific hazards. Our Working at Heights Training covers both.
Is online training enough for Food Production?
Yes for the core legal and safe-system knowledge; add equipment-specific tickets where the Food Production task requires them.
More on staying safe at height
The rescue plan is the part most teams forget. If a worker doing food production work at height falls and is left hanging in a harness, suspension trauma can become life-threatening within minutes. Calling the emergency services is not a rescue plan; having the equipment, the trained people and the method to recover them quickly is. Our Working at Heights Training makes that planning routine.
Falls from height remain one of the leading causes of serious and fatal workplace injury in Ireland, year after year. The pattern is depressingly consistent for food production work at height: a short task, a familiar setting, a ladder or platform that seemed fine, and a single moment of overreach. Proper training breaks that pattern by making the safe choice the automatic one.
Get certified today
Do not wait for an HSA inspection or a near miss to act. Food Production employers and workers can complete the Working at Heights Course online in 45 minutes and download a certificate the same day. For 10 or more learners, see our team training rates, or contact our team for a tailored quote.
Start the online Working at Heights Training now and put a recognised certificate in every worker's file before the next job at height begins.
